Head-smacking moment for airline and its brand-new plane

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HONG KONG – Proofreaders are important. That’s the message Cathay Pacific is likely contemplating today after incredulous travelers spotted one of its new planes on the tarmac at Hong Kong International Airport, the airline’s name misspelled in large letters on the side of the aircraft (see a picture here). Missing from the word “Pacific,” per the BBC: the letter “f,” which prompted “no one gives an f” jokes online.

There’s some head-scratching going on over the embarrassingly prominent mistake, with an engineer for one of the airline’s sister companies telling the South China Morning Post: “The spacing is too on-point for a mishap. We have stencils. Should be a blank gap in between letters if it was a real mistake, I think.”

The airline, which may have to pony up a few thousand dollars to fix the error, tried to have a sense of humor about it all, posting pictures of the plane on Twitter and noting, “Oops this special livery won’t last long! She’s going back to the shop!”